The archaeology of slighting: a methodological framework for interpreting castle destruction in the Middle Ages

ABSTRACT

The use of destruction in the past, its purpose and function, is poorly understood and an under-studied area. With hundreds of excavations at castles, there is a body of archaeological evidence that can be synthesised into a study of destruction. Slighting is the damage of a high-status structure, its associated landscape and contents to degrade its value. This article aims to bring the study of destruction into the established discourse of castles and medieval archaeology. It does this by establishing a methodological framework for understanding slighting and examines its application at key sites. In doing so, a chronology and geography of slighting is produced, along with a rich understanding of how and why castles were destroyed in the medieval period. Case studies of Weston Turville (Buckinghamshire) and Degannwy (Caernarfonshire) are used to explore how the archaeological and historical records interact and can be used to corroborate each other. By examining the archaeology of destruction, a new interpretation of slighting has been advanced, understanding it as an activity rich in social meaning with implications beyond the study of castles and the medieval period.     

The Siting of Medieval Castles and the Influence of Ancient Places

THIS PAPER EXAMINES the ways in which the siting of castles in England was influenced by the remains of monuments and landscapes from the prehistoric and Romano-British periods. It explores the character, distribution and scale of ancient monument reuse as evidenced through the archaeological and documentary record, in an attempt to discern patterns in peoples’ responses to monuments from the ancient past. It considers the ways in which these places were perceived by both the ruling elite and the local community: exploring how inherited landscapes were used in castle building to structure concepts of belonging, constituted through memory and genealogy. The conclusion is that ancient places were reused by castle builders from the 11th to the 14th century as part of an evolving narrative aimed at enhancing rights to people, place and power.     

Stone Tablets,Memorial Texts and Agency in Late-Medieval Scandinavian Castles: The Examples of Glimmingehus and Olofsborg

THIS PAPER EXPLORES how noblemen expressed themselves in late-medieval Scandinavian castles, in the buildings and in the landscape. The focus is on decorated stone tablets with coats of arms and memorial texts found on the castle walls, but the landscape setting of the castles is also discussed. The examples considered here are Glimmingehus in Scania, in present-day southern Sweden, and Olofsborg in eastern Finland — both erected in the late 15th century. The locations of stone tablets in the castles are investigated, as well as who was able to see them and share their messages. It is argued that while the coats of arms and memorial texts were situated to convey ideas to an aristocracy, the landscape context of the castle mediated messages of social status to a wider public.     

The Internationalism of German Castle Research: Bodo Ebhardt,His European Network,and the Construction of 'Castle Knowledge'

Abstract

Recent monographs and articles emphasize the strong impact of nationalism and racist thinking on archaeology. In contrast to the treatments which focus on single nation states and on archaeology as a politically legitimate science, this paper explores the tension between internationalism and racist premises in German castle research, and how it manifests itself in the construction of knowledge about medieval castles across national borders. I will focus on Bodo Ebhardt, Germany's most famous and influential castle researcher of the first half of the 20th century. The analysis of his scientific work, and of his personal contact with other European researchers as well as with German politicians and patrons, will shed light on the changes and continuities in his network, and in particular on his construction of the past that was influenced by the formation of this network, which, in turn, affected his assessment of medieval castles.     

Fortresses and fashion statements: gentry castles in fourteenth-century Northumberland

The fourteenth century saw a dramatic upsurge of new castle building in northern England. Not unreasonably, historians have associated this with the Scottish wars, seeing this proliferation as a direct response to Scottish raiding, and assuming that these castles were designed and built solely to perform a defensive military function. However, recent work on castles has questioned such purely functionalist interpretations. This article examines the castles built in the fourteenth century by the ‘gentry’ of Northumberland, the most exposed of all the border counties to Scottish attack, and sets them in their local and national contexts. Were these castles just built as defensive fortresses, or did they also serve a more symbolic role, in a society which had rapidly become militarised with the onset of war in 1296? Were they in fact intended as much to keep up with the neighbours as to keep out the Scots?     

New Methods on Old Castles: Generating New Ways of Seeing

THE USE of new methods on old castles generates new ways of seeing and leads to new interpretations. Three types of analyses are demonstrated on four late 13th-century castles from North Wales. Feature Analysis invokes the use of a decision-tree to help in the determination of room function. Access Analysis via access diagrams is used to understand the functional organization of rooms within each castle. Finally, a Comparative Analysis employing access diagrams, plans, a table and a cumulative graph is performed to note developmental trends in the castle designs, to detect differences between the castles, and to lead to new interpretations or new working hypotheses.     

Political iconoclasm: the destruction of Eccleshall Castle during the English Civil Wars

SUMMARY: The mid 17th century in the British Isles was dominated by a period of political and religious turmoil known as the English Civil Wars. The two sides, Royalist and Parliamentarian, became associated with very different forms of Christianity, with the latter being identified with Puritanism, an extremely austere religion whose supporters became associated with iconoclasm. However, this paper explores the motivations for the damage caused at the Bishop of Lichfield’s palace at Eccleshall, Staffordshire, and suggests its destruction was caused by politics rather than religion, thus demonstrating the need for a more nuanced examination of slighting during this turbulent time.     

Magnificent entrances and undignified exits: chronicling the symbolism of castle space in Normandy

Recent years have seen an increase in the number of studies on the symbolism of the castle, particularly in relation to lordship. Such studies are interdisciplinary in nature and often employ the language of the use of space in order to determine how castles functioned and how they were perceived. This article considers what the chroniclers of eleventh- and twelfth-century Normandy meant by castle space. This analysis can help us to determine how space was used, its connection to ideas about social relationships, including gender, and the chroniclers' purpose in including the events they described in their narratives. Many of the episodes described by the chroniclers relate to ideas about the authority and legitimacy of both men and women. As such the spatial setting of the castle is a means of holding up good examples of how authority should be exercised as well as illustrations of what happens when people either fail to uphold that authority or appropriate it in an illegitimate manner.     

Magnificent entrances and undignified exits: chronicling the symbolism of castle space in Normandy

Recent years have seen an increase in the number of studies on the symbolism of the castle, particularly in relation to lordship. Such studies are interdisciplinary in nature and often employ the language of the use of space in order to determine how castles functioned and how they were perceived. This article considers what the chroniclers of eleventh- and twelfth-century Normandy meant by castle space. This analysis can help us to determine how space was used, its connection to ideas about social relationships, including gender, and the chroniclers' purpose in including the events they described in their narratives. Many of the episodes described by the chroniclers relate to ideas about the authority and legitimacy of both men and women. As such the spatial setting of the castle is a means of holding up good examples of how authority should be exercised as well as illustrations of what happens when people either fail to uphold that authority or appropriate it in an illegitimate manner.     

Painted Glass

The consideration of contemporary ‘designed landscapes’ around late medieval castles is now well-established. However, all too often the consideration of such a landscape is not accompanied by an equally detailed study of the building from which it was viewed, particularly the ‘viewing windows’—windows suggested to be deliberately placed within a building to provide a view over, across or towards a specific element of a designed landscape or the wider natural landscape. This paper discusses such windows, and also wall-walks, within the architectural context of one particular castle. It identifies three basic questions which should be asked in relation to any view (how did the viewer look, what were they looking at and why did they choose to look at it?), and seeks to demonstrate that windows and wall-walks intervene between the viewer and the view to the same degree as they facilitate the act of looking. An appreciation of these processes is crucial to understanding late medieval concepts of viewing.     

The Demolition of the Roman Tetrapylon in Caerleon: An Erasure of Memory

Excavations in Caerleon, the headquarters of the Second Augustan Legion, have demonstrated the existence of a tetrapylon at the centre of the Roman fortress. Evidence indicates that the structure survived into the medieval period when it was undermined and demolished. A recent review of ceramic finds associated with the demolition horizon suggests that the tetrapylon was razed in the thirteenth century. While stone-robbing for reconstruction of the medieval castle in Caerleon may provide a partial explanation for the destruction, political circumstances at the time provided additional incentives. Association of the Roman remains with resurgent Welsh lordship appears to have created a political reason for removal of the structure.     

The rituals and significance of ducal civic entries in late medieval Brittany

The physical appearance of the Merovingian villa has been ignored by most archaeologists and historians, largely because of the paucity of information. Three radically different images can be found in the sparse literature; something akin to a Roman villa, a forerunner of the medieval castle, or a village settlement such as the excavated site of Warendorf, Germany, to which a number of analogous sites have been found in the recent past. This article argues for the continuity of Roman traditions, if not the actual physical buildings. In particular the absence of fortification is discussed. Traditionally, violence and the development of castles are accepted as cause and effect, yet endemic insecurity did not give rise to a Merovingian castle. The common enclosures of Merovingian villas, far from being defensive, are seen as having symbolic meaning which was actively employed to define propriety, legal rights, and social relations. The maintenance of peace and personal safety depended on the adequate understanding by individuals of local politics and the ordering of their social world; an understanding expressed in the physical world of architecture.     

Fortresses and fashion statements: gentry castles in fourteenth-century Northumberland

The fourteenth century saw a dramatic upsurge of new castle building in northern England. Not unreasonably, historians have associated this with the Scottish wars, seeing this proliferation as a direct response to Scottish raiding, and assuming that these castles were designed and built solely to perform a defensive military function. However, recent work on castles has questioned such purely functionalist interpretations. This article examines the castles built in the fourteenth century by the ‘gentry’ of Northumberland, the most exposed of all the border counties to Scottish attack, and sets them in their local and national contexts. Were these castles just built as defensive fortresses, or did they also serve a more symbolic role, in a society which had rapidly become militarised with the onset of war in 1296? Were they in fact intended as much to keep up with the neighbours as to keep out the Scots?     

Building from Scratch: The aesthetics of post‐disaster reconstruction(Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)

This article looks at the visual character of post‐conflict and post‐disaster settings, and shows how states of physical ruin can help to produce an ‘aesthetics of post‐disaster reconstruction’. With examples primarily drawn from the author's field site in Timor‐Leste, the article shows how ruins, ashes and demolition may be perceived as enabling particular kinds of agency and opportunity. Thus, some of the most hopeful of international‐intervention dreams of recent decades have been produced out of sites of mass‐scale destruction.     

Siegefields: An Archaeological Assessment of 'Small' sieges of the British Civil Wars

Abstract

Despite outnumbering the pitched battles of the British Civil Wars of the 1640s, sieges, particularly 'small' sieges against single structures such as castles and country mansions, have not been subjected to the intensive study that the battles have enjoyed. While sieges are described in the contemporary literature, we do not fully-understand the physical dynamics of 17th century siege warfare, nor have we identified the key archaeological signatures of such military events. Although castle interiors have been 'cleared' and some partially excavated, the areas immediately beyond the walls have not come in for systematic study. Yet these 'siegefields' may be 'conflict sensitive' and hold the greatest potential for information regarding siege activity. Using an array of data drawn from various survey methodologies, it may be possible to establish strategies for examining siege sites.     

The Merovingian nobleman's home: castle or villa?

The physical appearance of the Merovingian villa has been ignored by most archaeologists and historians, largely because of the paucity of information. Three radically different images can be found in the sparse literature; something akin to a Roman villa, a forerunner of the medieval castle, or a village settlement such as the excavated site of Warendorf, Germany, to which a number of analogous sites have been found in the recent past. This article argues for the continuity of Roman traditions, if not the actual physical buildings. In particular the absence of fortification is discussed. Traditionally, violence and the development of castles are accepted as cause and effect, yet endemic insecurity did not give rise to a Merovingian castle. The common enclosures of Merovingian villas, far from being defensive, are seen as having symbolic meaning which was actively employed to define propriety, legal rights, and social relations. The maintenance of peace and personal safety depended on the adequate understanding by individuals of local politics and the ordering of their social world; an understanding expressed in the physical world of architecture.     

民居中的奇迹——福建的土楼

土楼是福建西南部以永定为中心的客家人的民居。这种民居非常特殊,有方形、园形。多为四层,中间为庭院。居民多属同族、同宗、同姓。它是北方因战乱而南迁的移民带来的。在东汉以后。北方战乱,大姓士绅多聚居建成坞壁,作为保护自己。客家人南迁到福建西南,在少数民族与荒野之中,也采取这种形式建筑以适应防守需要。永居的土楼在当地环境亦有发展,特别是园形土楼,形成独特形式。由于客家人聚族迁移此地,土楼既适应其特殊环境,而且也进一步促进了客家人以耕读为中心的强大内聚力的文化的发展。因此,土楼既是客家文化的一种外在景观,又是其文化内涵的外在条件。     

The archaeology of private life: the Dudley Castle condoms

Abstract

During excavations of the mid 1980s at Dudley Castle in the West Midlands the contents of the keep garderobe were recovered intact and processed by sieving and hand-sorting, with samples being subjected to full laboratory analysis. The latrine was sealed during demolition of the castle’s defences in 1647, the intact deposit containing both the domestic and organic remains of the occupying royalist force which defended the castle under siege conditions between 1642 and 1646. Examination of the compacted organic mass of the latrine produced fragments of ten individual animal-membrane condoms, which were subsequently taken to the Department of Scientific Research, British Museum, for further analysis. The terminus ante quem deposit of 1647 represents the earliest definitive physical evidence for the use of animal-membrane condoms in post-medieval Europe, although at this early date it is impossible to know for sure whether they were designed as prophylactics for protection against venereal disease or as contraceptive devices. This report comprises a note on the excavation of the Dudley Castle garderobe and the process of recovery (PB and SL), a full scientific report on the condoms which includes a comparative examination of a set of late 18th-century condoms in the British Museum collections (CC), and concludes with a discussion of the significance of the Dudley Castle finds in the light of the historical evidence for early condom technology and use (DG). This paper was edited for publication by DG.     

Imagining the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: The Politics and Economics of the Rebuilding of Trakai Castle and the ‘Palace of Sovereigns’ in Vilnius

Abstract

In 1884 the prominent nation-builder Jonas Basanavi?ius declared that castle mounds and literature were the only appropriate elements from which to build the Lithuanian nation. Basanavi?ius’s view, this article suggests, had a lasting influence on the public uses of history in twentieth-century Lithuania. The study explores the construction of two iconic images of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Trakai Castle and the ‘Palace of Sovereigns’ in Vilnius. Built in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Trakai Castle was once the seat of the Grand Duke of Lithuania, but fell into neglect before its reconstruction in the 1960s. Dating back to the thirteenth century, the Palace in Vilnius deteriorated during the eighteenth century, was dismantled at the beginning of the nineteenth, and has been completely rebuilt since 2000. It is striking that the reconstructions of castles were the largest state investments in culture in both the Soviet and post-Soviet regimes. The reconstruction of Trakai Castle was criticized on economic and ideological grounds by Nikita Khrushchev. The rebuilding of the Palace polarized Lithuanian intellectuals. The presentation compares the intellectual, social, and political rationales which underpinned the two projects and explores the changes and continuities in the uses of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania under the Soviet and post-Soviet regimes.     

Potential osteoarchaeological evidence for riding and the military use of horses at Malbork Castle,Poland

The paper explores interpretations of two sets of pathological horse vertebrae identified during analyses of animal bones from recent excavations at the castle at Malbork in northern Poland (formerly Marienburg in Prussia). One specimen dates to the 18th century and the other to the medieval period. The castle was initially constructed by the Teutonic Order from the late 13th century and occupied by military institutions into the 19th century, and is one of the largest fortified structures in Europe. The pathological vertebrae are attributed to prolonged load‐bearing. The problematic interpretation of the remains from the medieval context as belonging to a warhorse is discussed. Warhorses are widely described in contemporary documentary sources which indicate that mares were typically kept in farms on the Order's estates in late‐medieval Prussia, while studs were separately stabled at castles. There is not enough data to confirm the medieval specimen as a warhorse, and both vertebrae may simply represent riding animals. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.